Six distinguished Cornell alumni have been selected to receive the third annual Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award, which recognizes their outstanding service to Cornell volunteer activities.
The 1997 recipients of the award, established in 1994 in the name
of President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, are Edward F. Arps '55,
BCE '56, MBA '57, Dorothy A. Free '53, L. William Kay II '51, Lawrence Lowenstein '43,
Margaret Newell Mitchell '47 and William M. Vanneman '31.
The award winners will be recognized at a reception and
dinner during this year's Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 26 to
28. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni
Affairs at (607) 255-2390
Edward F. Arps, vice-president/Cornell Fund representative of the Class of '55, started his university fund-raising career in the 1965 Centennial Fund Campaign. He is now Houston Tower Club chair and served as City Campaign co-chair in the recent Capital Campaign. He served five terms on the University Council, served on the university's Planned Giving Committee and chaired the Corporate Matching Gifts Program. He is a past president of the Cornell Club of Boston and served eight years as president of the Cornell Alumni Association of Greater Houston. Arps is retired from Exxon and is a member of the board of the College of Biblical Studies-Houston.
Dorothy A. Free received the dean's award for service to the College of Human Ecology in 1988. She was vice chair of the University Council for one year, a member of its administrative board for six, chairing its International Programs Committee and the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, and she became a life member in 1996. She has served on the board of the Cornell Club of Northern California for 25 years and was the first woman president of the combined men's and women's club. Free has been a docent at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco for 20 years.
L. William Kay II is a life member of the University Council and co-founder of the Cornell Real Estate Council. He served on its Advisory Council and was the original Founders Fund chair. During the recent Cornell Campaign, he co-chaired the ILR national campaign committees and worked on the Major Gifts Campaign Committee. He co-chaired the CU in Philadelphia commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Penn/Cornell football game and is past president of his class. Organizer and co-chair of the Frederick George Marcham Scholarship Fund, he also is funding the History of Cornell project by Keith Johnson and is named on a plaque in the Cornell Library honoring Friends of the Rare Book and Manuscripts Collection.
Lawrence Lowenstein is a lifetime member of the University Council. During the recent Cornell Campaign, he made contributions of time and energy to both the Arts and Sciences Campaign Committee and the New York City Personal Solicitation Team for the '40s. He has served as chair of the Secondary Schools Admission Volunteer Program, on the CACO Board, on the board of the Federation of Cornell Clubs and as president of the Cornell Alumni Association of New York City. He has been his class's Cornell Fund representative for more than 25 years and was reunion campaign chair for its 50th Reunion. He serves on the board of Handgun Control Inc. and, since his retirement, has been director of alumni and development at the Horace Mann School in New York.
Margaret Newell Mitchell, a lifetime member of the University Council, has been co-chair of the Cayuga Society since its inception. She has co-chaired the university's Planned Giving Committee and provided creative input to the dissemination of planned giving information to Cornell alumni. She is former president of the Class of '47 and the first woman president of the Cornell Club of Northeastern Ohio. A former member of the advisory council of the College of Human Ecology, she received the dean's award for service to the college in 1995. Through the years she has been actively involved in Cleveland organizations, and she currently is secretary-treasurer of Even Cut Abrasive Co.
William V. Vanneman has been active in class and alumni affairs since his first (Dix Plan) Reunion in 1933. He was a founding member and a long-time officer and board member of the Cornell Club of Fairfield County (Conn.), which he also served in Cornell Fund work as an interviewer on its Secondary School Committee and as liaison for athletic staff recruiting efforts. He was a member and later chairman of the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations. He has been president and class correspondent for his class for many years. He retired from a career in law book publishing in 1974.